In most training camps around the NHL, there is a role of “depth defenseman” being fought for by a handful of veterans hanging on or young players trying to make an impression. And in most camps, that winner likely will receive a role on the third pair — in the starting lineup.

For the Blueshirts, the battle for depth defenseman is for the man who gets the honor to be a healthy scratch. That’s because the top six, the men who start, are arguably the best group of six in the league.

“You look at our lineup, and there’s no weaknesses there,” Marc Staal told The Post after Saturday night’s 4-3 win over the Devils at Prudential Center. “We’re a very talented group and a lot of different guys bring a lot of different aspects. We compliment each other pretty well.”

It was Staal’s first preseason game, his first contest since offseason ankle surgery. When Staal went in for the surgery, the doctors’ plan was to remove a painful bone chip. After surgery began, they found the bone was attached to a ligament, so they had to detach the ligament, reattach it, and put Staal in a boot for almost four weeks.

He got out of the boot on July 15, then had to give his ankle some time to heal before putting his foot back in a skate. He finally got back on the ice on Aug. 10, and it has taken a while to regain the strength in his calf and thigh, having been inactive for so long.

As for how he felt in his first game, he could only allow a coy grin to cross his face.

Staal, with protective hard plastic now wrapped around each skate, paired the whole night with longtime friend and teammate Dan Girardi, who also was coming off ankle surgery this summer and who looked like it was his first game since May.

“It’s like Dan and Marc Staal tonight, you can see they’re going to need a couple of games here to get their timing and their rhythm,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “That’s why you have training camp. You have to go through the process.”

Girardi’s regular blueline partner, captain Ryan McDonagh, got the night off after making his preseason debut in Boston on Thursday. The group is bolstered by last season’s trade-deadline acquisition Keith Yandle, and the stout and steady Kevin Klein. Even Dan Boyle, the aging veteran, had his game rise from the ashes near the end of last season and into the playoffs.

“Especially in the [salary] cap day and age, to be able to keep our ‘D’ corps together, it gives us a good advantage,” Girardi said. “We have six strong ‘D,’ we have guys fighting for the seventh, eighth spot. Anybody can get those jobs. I think we’re pretty deep on the back end.”

Young defenseman Mat Bodie, 25, shot himself in the foot with Saturday’s shaky performance, getting sent down to AHL Hartford after the game. That left the competition for that seventh defenseman role between veteran Raphael Diaz, who scored two power-play goals amidst a game riddled with mistakes, and the physical Dylan McIlrath, who has shown himself to be safe and dependable, and he darn near scored a short-handed breakaway goal in the 3-on-3 overtime.

But whoever wins the job is a supplement to a six-man group as established and formidable as any. They also happen to play in front of one of the best goalies in the world, Henrik Lundqvist.

“With Hanky back there and the six or eight of us,” Girardi said, “it gives ourselves a chance to win every game.”